Let’s have a look at how to install a video card.

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In This Video
In this video, I will look at how to install a video card and also have a brief look at how to install Multiple-Stream Transport or MST. You won’t need to know much for the CompTIA exam, so I will have a look at the basics at the start of the video. In the rest of the video, I will look at some more details about video cards if you want to know more. This extra knowledge will help you in the workplace to install video cards, but you are unlikely to get an exam question on it.

Let’s have a look at how to install a video card.

Installing a Video Card
To install a video card, I first need to remove the side panel of the computer case. For this computer case, there are four screws that need to be removed. Once the screws are removed, the side panel can be removed. Some panels will require you to slide the panel before it can be removed. For this computer case, I need to push it down and then lift it upwards to remove it.

Before installing the video card, I first need to see how many expansion slot blanking plates need to be removed and their positions. To do this, I will hold the video card just above the PCI slot. To prevent damage to the video card, hold the video card by the plastic parts making sure you don’t touch the electronics on the back of the card and hover it over the PCI slot.

The end result is, we should be able to tell which PCI blanking plates need to be removed. In this case two blanks need to be removed. The location of the PCI slot on the motherboard will determine which blanking plates need to be removed.

So, I will next take the video card out of the case and remove the two blanking plates. In this computer case, it is just a matter of removing one screw and the blanking plate will come out. On some computer cases the blanking plates don’t have screws and will pop out.

With some computer cases, the blanking plates are part of the computer case. For these computer cases, wiggle the blanking plate till it breaks lose. Be careful of other parts on the motherboard that the blanking plate may hit. You don’t want to damage a component on the motherboard when removing the blanking plate.

The next step is to plug in the video card. Place the video card in the slot and push down on either end of the video card on the non-electronic parts. If you have trouble getting the video card to go in the slot, you can rock the card a little bit, but not too much. Once it is in, you should hear a click.

The next step is to screw in the two retaining screws. This will hold the video card in place. It is important to put in these retaining screws because bumping the computer case or simply plugging in a video cable can force the card out of the slot. If this happens, your computer will most likely restart and you risk damaging the video card and/or the motherboard.

In the case of this video card, the video card will draw power from the PCI slot, but this will not be enough to power the video card. To provide extra power, two additional power plugs are on the top of the video card.

This video card has two additional six-pin power plugs on the top. Your power supply should have a PCI Express power plug, unless it is really old. This power supply has a six-pin power plug which can be changed to an eight pin. The extra pins provide more power. Different video cards have different power needs, and this will determine which connectors you will use.

I will next plug in the two PCI power plugs. Once these are plugged in, the video card hardware installation is complete. In most cases, the video card installation will be quite simple; later in the video I will look at some more advanced installations and how to configure the hardware, but for the CompTIA exam you will just need to know how to install the video card.

In some cases, you may have a CPU and motherboard that support video. Generally, when you install a video card, the video from the motherboard will be disabled. In some cases, you may not want that because you want to use it for a second monitor. It can, however, be re-enabled. Let’s have a look at how to do that.

Computer Setup
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References
“Picture: Dual monitors” https://unsplash.com/photos/XiyRsNHw16s

Credits
Trainer: Austin Mason http://ITFreeTraining.com
Voice Talent: HP Lewis http://hplewis.com
Quality Assurance: Brett Batson http://www.pbb-proofreading.uk